Department of Histology and Embryology, College of Basic Medical Sciences, Norman Bethune College of Medicine, Jilin University, Changchun, Jilin, China.
Institute of Acupuncture and Moxibustion, China Academy of Chinese Medical Science, Beijing, China.
J Med Virol. 2020 Jun;92(6):552-555. doi: 10.1002/jmv.25728. Epub 2020 Mar 11.
Following the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) and Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV), another highly pathogenic coronavirus named SARS-CoV-2 (previously known as 2019-nCoV) emerged in December 2019 in Wuhan, China, and rapidly spreads around the world. This virus shares highly homological sequence with SARS-CoV, and causes acute, highly lethal pneumonia coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) with clinical symptoms similar to those reported for SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV. The most characteristic symptom of patients with COVID-19 is respiratory distress, and most of the patients admitted to the intensive care could not breathe spontaneously. Additionally, some patients with COVID-19 also showed neurologic signs, such as headache, nausea, and vomiting. Increasing evidence shows that coronaviruses are not always confined to the respiratory tract and that they may also invade the central nervous system inducing neurological diseases. The infection of SARS-CoV has been reported in the brains from both patients and experimental animals, where the brainstem was heavily infected. Furthermore, some coronaviruses have been demonstrated able to spread via a synapse-connected route to the medullary cardiorespiratory center from the mechanoreceptors and chemoreceptors in the lung and lower respiratory airways. Considering the high similarity between SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV2, it remains to make clear whether the potential invasion of SARS-CoV2 is partially responsible for the acute respiratory failure of patients with COVID-19. Awareness of this may have a guiding significance for the prevention and treatment of the SARS-CoV-2-induced respiratory failure.
继严重急性呼吸综合征冠状病毒（SARS-CoV）和中东呼吸综合征冠状病毒（MERS-CoV）之后，另一种高致病性冠状病毒于 2019 年 12 月在中国武汉出现，被命名为严重急性呼吸综合征冠状病毒 2 型（以前称为 2019-nCoV），并迅速在全球范围内传播。该病毒与 SARS-CoV 具有高度同源性序列，引起急性、高致死性肺炎冠状病毒病 2019（COVID-19），其临床症状与 SARS-CoV 和 MERS-CoV 报道的相似。COVID-19 患者的最典型症状是呼吸窘迫，大多数入住重症监护病房的患者无法自主呼吸。此外，一些 COVID-19 患者还表现出神经系统症状，如头痛、恶心和呕吐。越来越多的证据表明，冠状病毒并不总是局限于呼吸道，它们也可能侵入中枢神经系统引起神经系统疾病。SARS-CoV 的感染已在患者和实验动物的大脑中报告，其中脑干受到严重感染。此外，一些冠状病毒已被证明能够通过突触连接的途径从肺部和下呼吸道的机械感受器和化学感受器传播到延髓心肺呼吸中枢。鉴于 SARS-CoV 和 SARS-CoV2 之间的高度相似性，仍需要明确 SARS-CoV2 的潜在侵袭是否部分导致 COVID-19 患者的急性呼吸衰竭。意识到这一点可能对 SARS-CoV-2 引起的呼吸衰竭的预防和治疗具有指导意义。
